


Selcouth

by Faerieoftara



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: 007 Fest, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, basically a magic!au, but still bond as 007, more tags will be added as story progresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-13
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 11:36:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11485590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faerieoftara/pseuds/Faerieoftara
Summary: Selcouth, adj: Strange, unusual, rare; unfamiliar; marvellous, wondrous.Maybe, Bond thought, if he grew up believing in those old Scottish myths of monsters and fairies and magical creatures, he would more easily have welcomed magic into his life when it appeared.Currently on hiatus.





	1. Prologue

_“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”_

**― W.B.Yeats**

Bond supposed, if he had grown up only living in the great, big, lonely moor around Skyfall, that he would have believed in magic longer than he did. An often foggy landscape coupled with a old stone house with secret passageways would have easily lent his brain to see mythological creatures and local folklore behind every corner. But living as he did, traveling the world with his father and mother, learning different customs and languages every time he turned around, gave him the knowledge that the world was too big, too hateful, too diverse to ever contain that pure magic that children grow up believing in.

Sure, there may be monsters under their beds, but what child doesn’t look up into the bright blue sky and know those clouds are dancing with the wind just for them?

Maybe, Bond thought, if he grew up believing in those old Scottish myths of monsters and fairies and magical creatures, he would more easily have welcomed magic into his life when it appeared.

And this magic wasn’t the smoke and mirrors type that graced the stages with top hats and white rabbits. This wasn’t even science being hailed as sorcery, or a trick. This was- unexplainable, physics-defying, otherworldly- magic. Bond had checked. Double and tripled checked. This magic wasn’t a trick. It was real.

Bond himself saw the irony that this newly-formed rock-solid conviction of his was coming from potentially the most suspicious, untrusting person in MI6 (which in itself is saying something). But at the end of the day, the fact of the matter was this: In a world of hate, violence, death, and deceit, James Bond had stumbled across a most simple thing that changed the course of his entire life and reworked his entire belief system- a man with a book reading by the light of a lamp post.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For 007 fest! Let me know what you think :)


	2. Chapter 1

_“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.” **  
**_

_― Roald Dahl_

It was dusk, that time of night where the world was just beginning to quiet. Bugs were chirping in the long grasses along the tree lined avenue, birds rustling high in their perches, all settling down for the evening.

The sun was but a whisper on the horizon, a pale pink glow illuminating the townspeople’s way to their beds.  

James Bond could feel the leaves crunching under his feet, having just fallen just a few nights before in an unseasonably cold day for early September. The trees were barely hanging on to the green of summer- leaves drooped, fading and hardening with every passing moment.

His footsteps seemed to grow louder the longer he walked, night closing in quickly, creeping up on earth as it is wont to do.

Bond knew intimately that silence was never an accurate indication of being alone, he often classified situations as _more_ dangerous the quieter they were. The lightest footsteps, in his opinion, belonged to two creatures: cats and assassins (though sometimes it is impossible to differentiate between the two).

On this early fall night, Bond could feel something stirring. It wasn’t his finely honed sixth sense of being watched that alerted him, but the feeling of an unknown power about to be unleashed: the calm before a lightning storm, the breath before a whispered secret, the rush before the fall.

Bond cast his eyes in all directions as he continued to walk. This feeling unnerved him.

He spotted a figure up ahead, near the gate that separated this path in the park from the rest of the small town. A man was sitting on a park bench, reading by the light of a lamp post.

The man looked innocuous enough, dark trousers, tan jacket, shoes that were not conducive to running or walking silently. He seemed quite enraptured in his book, and as Bond watched, the man shifted sideways, shining more light onto the page-

A beat.

Bond froze.

He didn’t think he was that tired. His eyes very rarely pulled tricks on him.

He shut his eyes firmly, shook his head, and reopened them- a move he hadn’t done since childhood. He barely resisted the urge to rub his eyes in a cartoon-ish manner.

A beat.

The man was reading his book by the light of the lamp post, yes, but the lamp post was bent into a strange shape. [It curved down, shining directly on the man and his book](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FCiomlwNU4AAS4Hw.jpg&t=YWYxNzM1ZDA5NmU3OTc5MmYzMzMxNDkxMTg0YzcwOGYzOTk4ZGQyNSxtZVA0bk5meA%3D%3D&b=t%3ArTseC9gFrWbek0zM6xEQcw&p=https%3A%2F%2Ffaerieoftara.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F162685134511%2F00q-magicau-chapter-1&m=1). All the other lights along the path stood straight and tall, black metal reaching toward the sky, yellow puddles of light illuminating the surrounding area.

Bond had seen many peculiar things in his life, people and places and deeds that would disturb most of the general population. He had never been rattled by something this simple before.

In a small corner of his mind, he wondered why he wasn’t brushing this…phenomenon… off as a joke- a lamp post created to induce double-takes, something made for the town to smile over.

It would be easy to imagine the townspeople buying this trick lamp post, excited to surprise the few visitors that wandered through the village. Maybe it was a tourist stunt- Come Read By Our Gravity-Defying Lamp Post!- but that thought was a stretch.

Unsure on why he was spending so much time and energy on this strange object, Bond kept walking. If the matter still bothered him in the morning, he would come back and examine it, preferably before the rest of the town woke up and laughed at him falling for their joke.

As Bond walked past the man reading by the impossible lamp post, he focused only on his breathing, the cool air, and the thought of the quilt-covered bed in the small room awaiting him at the hotel. It had been a long day, and he obviously needed sleep.

He cast the lamp post and the man from his thoughts, unaware that the young man on the bench read on, and as he flipped his page, and night continued to fall, the lamp post shuffled a little closer, light shining directly on the open book below.

**Author's Note:**

> For 007 fest! Let me know what you think- I'm not totally sure where this story will end up.


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